Best use of Zen

I played before when Romulans came out and got a character to 60 in star fleet. I was thinking of coming back and trying the game again because I have a few weeks off from work. I work nights so I tend to play at odd hours which has kind of kept me from MMOs for awhile.
I was planning to make a KDF since I have not tried it yet.
Anyways I found that I have about 26k in Zen. Honestly, I have no recollection of buying it unless last time I played they had a huge sale because I normally don't spend that kind of money. However I was wondering what the best way to spend it would be if I started a new character.
I'm not very familiar with the game as I tended to just play solo mostly. I see most people suggesting the elite pack. I was thinking about trying a engineer or science captain since the one character I have is a tactical one. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Best Answers

Never buy anything with Zen thats not on Special. Specials come around.

Never buy anything with Zen thats tradeable. Everything tradable will be cheaper to buy for EC.

Wait for the 20Key Lockbox special with ultimate upgrades. Sink ALL your remaining Zen into this. Keep the Ultimate upgrades and use them to instantly upgrade perfect items to max level elites. SELL ALL THE KEYS.

Never ever ever open a Lockbox. Lockbox ships and Lobi ships are all cheaper if you buy them for EC. The reason for this is our population of whales, who enjoy spending $ on Zen, Zen on Keys, and opening lots and lots of lockboxes looking to complete their ship collection. These guys generate a massive surplus of all the lobi and lockbox ships so they are, relatively speaking, cheap as chips on the exchange for EC.

Buy account bank slots first. And again, only when they're on the 25% off special. These apply to all your characters and you'll probably have lots.

As a fellow LTS Ive been through many characters and every single Zen I spend on a per-character item I have regretted. Don't buy anything for a character until/unless you know they're a true keeper: i.e. An event Recruit. That you rolled Alien because Aliens are always the meta.

Don't roll a Borg. I know they're free with LTS. If you like roleplay go ahead. But otherwise Alien just have more, and better, traits for space and ground.

If you do spend Zen - ensure the service you buy unlocks items for your entire account.

Every now and then Cryptic will re-run a Delta Recruit, Gamma Recruit or Temporal Operative event. At these times you will WANT to create brand new characters to get the unique benefits these confer to your account, which means your previously purchased character locked services will be deleted. And Cryptic won't refund you.

There are a few critical ships to spend Zen on due to their OP Tier5 traits. Don't spend all your Zen until you have researched which ships these are. Otherwise avoid spending Zen on Ships - they ARE account unlocks so they're not the worse purchase, but buying Zen ships gets expensive quickly - if you are intendending to parlay a LTS surplus into the best benefit get some of the cheaper packs (again, while they are on Special) that confer an advantage to your account - the Discovery Starter Pack has that levelling ship for example. There are so many ships available in game that spending Zen on ships is mostly a waste, especially as the introduction of a new Tier of ship will make your fleet of Zen ships a redundant waste on your account that you will regret.

You are better of buying the ec limit remover and a shared bank account in my eyes, as for a new toon.

Tact = for pure dps
Engineer = for tanking
Science = for healing and team play

All are good in my opinion, it is more important to start of in the right factions. Example - certain bugs happen on a rom toon where those bug never show for a tos toon and vice versa.
There is more to consider but sadly my nooblet knowledge does not go that far just yet so it is hard for me to exactly tell you how to go about it all. Maybe an engineer kdf toon will have your liking, i know i like the one i have It packs a good punch and has a lot of stamina.

Buying ship packs before you have developed your play style is a mistake.

Get the basic things, the starter pack and Energy Credit Cap increase.. maybe some more inventory space if you like.

Then make your character and play the game. Use this time to find out if you like big ships or small ships.. do you prefer beams? Cannons? Maybe a torp boat? Do you prefer Science or Engineering? Maybe another tactical?

You need to learn all this stuff before you start buying mega bundles. It's easy for people on forums to spend your money based on what they like.. I could make you quite an extensive list myself. But we're all advising you based on what we like.. if you really want the best value for your Zen then determine exactly what you want/need and go from there.

Shared bank and EC caps are basic musts. It was nice when they had a bundle with it for you to buy with some retrain token and inventory space per toon...but no, they got rid of it for some stupid reason.

Each factional starter pack isn't a bad deal either.

If you are romulan, grab the valdore. No...really get it. That console should be on every Romulan ship you fly.

Otherwise, the only thing I might suggest before you figure out what you wanna fly is the battlecruiser pack. All the ships in it are quite good...with the romulans having an excellent one that works well with that console you must get. They also have a trait that is a must have for energy based builds...so unless you wanna go wonky for all your builds, the trait is something you will use.

Thank you guys for the replies. I will play my new Klingon for awhile without buying anything, and keep a eye out for sales. When I figure out what type of character I really want to build I will probably be back with more questions. Again, thank you very much for your time and answers.

Thank you guys for the replies. I will play my new Klingon for awhile without buying anything, and keep a eye out for sales. When I figure out what type of character I really want to build I will probably be back with more questions. Again, thank you very much for your time and answers.

I am not sure if you have the Zen because you have the lifetime subscription (you get 500 Zen/month). If you do, I wanted to let you know that you should have 1 or 2 special ships just for lifetime subscribers. My brother used his all the time when he used to play. It had the ability to switch between tanking and tactical. He loved that one.

I suggest what some others did, and keep your Zen for now. But I would also suggest rolling different classes before deciding to spend anything. I have been away for a while, but before I left, I had a Tac, Sci, and Engineer for Fed, Rom, and KDF. I am not suggesting to roll that many. But I suggest making sure you have at least 1 of each (Sci, Tac, and Engineer). They all being something to the table, and you might prefer one over the other, that you wouldn't have know if you didn't actually try it.

Me personally, I love the Engineer on the ground, because they can do so much (Cool toys for kits). And they are good for tanking in space. Tactical in space, just because of the ability to pop other ships quicker with an alpha strike (be careful, not as good survivability). And Science is fun all around for me. Debuff enemies on the ground, and hold and damage in space is fun. But if you know what class you like more, and what type ships you like them in, then you can better decide what ships you might like from the C-Store. This will lead to a lower chance of buyers remorse.

BTW, since no one else seemed to say it, Welcome Back! We missed you! Yes I am being serious. Too many people post in here about how they're quitting because silly reasons. How nice it is to see someone return. And return in style, too.

Lots of very good advice from previous posters about what to do with the Zen. All of them are smarter than I am about this game. Yes, once again I am being serious. the only thing I could add is this.

Don't forget to have fun while playing STO.

Lastly, nuqneH ghobe'-Qovpatlh tlhIH DopDaq, SuvwI'!
You Honor the Empire and all our Houses by making such a choice. Qa'pla!

THIS Guy! This guy is the reason why we cannot have nice things around here!

The current Elite Pack is not the Elite pack that people were talking about. The one they removed (for 1500 Zen) was freaking awesome. It gave stuff account wide. The new one (for 1000 Zen) is a poor imitation and only for 1 character. It might still be better than buying what it gives vs buying those things separately, but nowhere near the massive value of the old version.

And of course, start doing the Winter ship, if you have not yet. Looks like a fun ship, for the low price of running 25 quick races.

Sometimes I think I play STO just to have something to complain about on the forums.

Thank you guys for the replies. I will play my new Klingon for awhile without buying anything, and keep a eye out for sales.

There is usually a big one right around this time every year. I expect there to be a sale either this coming weekend or New Years Weekend. You shouldn't have to wait too long.

If you want to make some purchases during the sale, I would recommend going with what ColdNapalm suggested. If you're a Romulan, you'll want the T4 Valdore for the console and the T6 Morrigu for the trait. The trait is a 'must have' on any energy build, and while the Console isn't on most 'meta' DPS builds, like Napalm.. I use it on every warbird I fly.. always. It's an amazing console that will really increase your durability.

Thank you guys for the replies. I will play my new Klingon for awhile without buying anything, and keep a eye out for sales. When I figure out what type of character I really want to build I will probably be back with more questions. Again, thank you very much for your time and answers.

I prefer playing fewer rather than more characters so my plan - which might make some sense to you - is:

* Across my toons, have (at least) 1 each of each career: Tac, Science and Engineering: as this means I can craft all the skill manuals.
* Additionally, at least 1 toon of each available faction: 1 Starfleet, 1 Rom, 1 Klingon, 1 TOS, 1 Klingon, 1 Jem'hadar and 1 DSC.

Also, there have been historically special events run soon in the new year in which a Starfleet, Romulan and Klingon characters can earn access to account unlocked ships.

Finally Feds, Romulans and Klingons are all eligible for Delta Recruit. TOS are eligible for Temporal Recruit, Jem'hadar can be gamma recruits. DSC don't seem to have a recruitment event so...

So, my short term plan would be:
- create a DSC character to be my main.
- create a romulan and klingon and play them to at least level 50, so they are ready to claim any faction specific account unlock ships from events.

Longer term:
- if/when any recruitment events arrive roll new characters that are eligible for the event.
- Play tac,sci and eng enough to get maxed crafting on all careers.

5

Answers

I think I will make my Klingon a engineer, and then make a science character. I don't have a lifetime account so I think I must of just forgotten to unsubscribe at some point in time. The reason I came back was when I was home for thanksgiving I ended up watching a star trek movie marathon which made me think about the game. I really enjoyed the game last time I played until I got to the end game. It seemed like there was too many different systems I never could get my head around.

I will probably just end up being a altoholic since I remember enjoying the story content very much. I do want to try out a TOS character also. I may just end up only unlocking account wide things. I did read the advice about making alien characters for the extra trait, but I think I will enjoy making theme characters, since I want to make a Ferengi and a Cardassian to go with my Klingon and Romulan. The more I read about it the more things I want to try.

Honestly, thank you all again for all the advice and help. I'm really looking forward to playing this game again. I hope I see you around when I'm puttering around in my starter ship.

aoy toon , just try out the first 6 (i think) TOS era missions ,leave the char at levl 31
disco toon , totorial and 3 missions ,leave the char at levl 31
jem hadar , play for total 20 hours ,gamma storie arc
rom , until it choices sides so 10 episodes or so , leave at levl 31
klingoten , fekri 2. arc could be interesting but after that is the same as the feds so leave at levl 31

then when recruitment events comes around ,do the recruit toons and their different recruit tasks and you can claim alot of rewards to the above toons and to your current ones

ship sales max % I have seen is 30% for bundles... 25% for loose ships. 50% off expansion packs... but that is with real world money.

your allies can now use almost all T5 & T6 ships... so if you already have a Star Fleet Rom toon... no real need to play KDF side since the storylines all mesh together after L40 (Alpha Quad-DS9). Before you can buy a 3 pack... but now no real need to. So to save even more money... skip KDF and just buy Fed ship or Rom ship by itself during sales.

Elite Starter Pack... bank slots/shared back etc. stacks if you have lifetime and didnt max out on bank/shared inventory.

i dont do keys... gambling is bad. but they now have the instant upgrade with the key pack.

I am not sure if you have the Zen because you have the lifetime subscription (you get 500 Zen/month). If you do, I wanted to let you know that you should have 1 or 2 special ships just for lifetime subscribers. My brother used his all the time when he used to play. It had the ability to switch between tanking and tactical. He loved that one.

26k Zen would be over 4yrs of stipends. If he is a Lifetime sub there is less need to buy things like inventory/bank spaces since you will automatically get more as you get promotions. And you get the EC cap and Account Bank w/ LTS so no need to buy them.

And yeah, the Veteran Ships are very nice. If you just want to pilot escort/destroyer type ships, you're set. And all 3 factions have their own version of them. (there are T5 and T6 versions)

Sometimes I think I play STO just to have something to complain about on the forums.